It's been twenty years since Georgia passed two criminal justices reforms imposing stricter guidelines for handling some of the worst felonies.
Those laws are the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 1994 and the Mandatory Minimums of 1995, also called the Two strikes law.
At the time, Governor Zell Miller and the legislature called the measures tough on crime.
The measures deals with how certain crimes known as the "seven deadly sins" are handled - murder, rape, armed robbery, aggravated child molestation, aggravated sodomy, aggravated sexual battery, and voluntary manslaughter.
The Juvenile Justice Reform Act says minors 13 and older charged with any of those crimes can be tried as adults.
For those over 18, a first offense of any of those crimes carries a 10 years minimum sentence. A second conviction carries mandatory life without parole.
Some community leaders say the laws are hurting the community and need to be repealed.
Macon-Bibb Commissioner Al Tillman says he's sponsoring a resolution calling for their repeal. " I don't think they're working and if you ask most state facilities that run, jails are overcrowded and they don't know what to do, and I think we're hurting ourselves here in Georgia.," Tillman says
State Senator David Lucas (D-Macon) tried to repeal those laws last legisative session but couldn't get a hearing.
"I think we've got to go back and retool ourselves and I don't think treating them as adults in the majority of a lot of cases is in the best interest of those kids.," Sen. Lucas says.
But District Attorney David Cooke says the laws should stand. He says they make sure the most severe crimes are handled appropriately, and says prosecutors can still reduce a charge if needed.
"We're not talking about minor crimes, we're talking about murder, rape, aggravated child molestation, really serious, egregious offenses I think everybody's against. ," Cooke says.
In 2011, a study by the U.S. Department of Justice said there was little evidence that harsh juvenile sentencing laws prevented crime. In fact, the study said, they may make juvenile offenders more likely to commit other crimes.
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